The all-but-final numbers are in, and Creigh Deeds turned out to be a horrible candidate - with an equally horrible campaign - of historic proportions. With 99.7% of precincts reporting, Deeds received 814,032 votes, which was 343,000 fewer votes than Bob McDonnell got. In percentage terms, Deeds lost by 17.4 points. To put these staggering numbers into perspective, here's how they stack up compared to other candidates and other campaigns. Keep in mind that there are 5.0 million registered voters in Virginia today.*Deeds underperformed his ticketmates, receiving 35,000 fewer votes than Jody Wagner and 9,000 fewer votes than Steve Shannon. When was the last time a Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Virginia received fewer votes than the Democratic LG or AG candidates? It looks like you have to go back to 1997, when Don Beyer underperformed LF Payne. Wow.
*Deeds received 212,000 fewer votes than Tim Kaine received in 2005. That year, there were 4.4 million voters in Virginia, or 600,000 fewer than there were this year. Yet Deeds still got 212,000 fewer votes than Tim Kaine did back then. Pathetic.
*Deeds received 143,000 fewer votes than Leslie Byrne - running as an unabashed liberal received in 2005. Is there a lesson here? Hmmmm.
*Deeds even received 156,000 fewer votes than he himself received (in his run for Atttorney General, which he also lost to Bob McDonnell) in 2005.
*Deeds received nearly 100,000 fewer votes than Jerry "The Duck" Kilgore got in 2005.
*Deeds received 140,000 fewer votes than Mark Warner got in 2001. There were just 4.1 million registered voters in Virginia back then, or 900,000 fewer than this year, yet Deeds still got 140,000 fewer votes. Ouch and double ouch!
*Deeds received 155,000 fewer votes than Jim Gilmore received in 1997, and only 75,000 more votes than Don Beyer - who got crushed that year - received. There wer just 3.6 million registered Virginia voters in 1997, or 1.4 million fewer than today, yet again, Deeds received 155,000 fewer votes than Jim Gilmore did back then. Epic fail.
*Deeds received 230,000 fewer votes than George Allen got in 1993, when there were only 3 million registered voters in Virginia - 2 million fewer than there are now. Amazingly, Deeds only received 70,000 more votes last night than Mary Sue Terry - who ran one of the worst campaigns for Virginia governor ever - got in 1993.
In sum, last night was a total, unmitigated, historic debacle for the top of the ticket on the Democratic side. I'll have a lot more on why this happened a bit later this morning...
